


Back alive

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 13.18, 13x18, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 11:19:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14307552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After Gabriel leaves, he changes his mind. And Sam isn’t exactly expecting him, but he’s waiting nonetheless.





	Back alive

The second time the bunker panic alarms go off that day, Sam’s had zero sleep. He’s been tossing and turning all night thinking how maybe if he’d spoken a little softer, asked a little more, been able to sit with him a little longer, he wouldn’t have lost Gabriel. Again.  
The truth is, he’s terrified for the archangel. Gabe might have his juice back, but he’s going to be a target for basically anything and everything there is out there.  
When the room turns from pitch black to a sharp red and the sirens start raging, he’s out of his bed in a second. He meets Dean and Cas in the corridor, each of them with weapons in hand. They all know that they’re expecting something nasty that’s come for Gabriel a little too late. They only just swept up what was left of Asmodeus, and Sam doesn’t really fancy killing another thing tonight.  
They certainly weren’t expecting him.  
“Hey, asshat. I thought you’d walked out on us today. You don’t just get to come strollin’ back in, you know,” Dean snaps at him. At least he lowers his weapon, not that it could hurt Gabriel if he fired it.  
Sam heads over to the control box and switches off the alarms.  
“Good to see you too, Dean-o. Lookin’ real well. Got a rosy glow in your cheeks. Kind you only get from interdimensional combat,” Gabriel replies, but his tone is half-dead.  
“Dean, Cas, why don’t you two just... go back to bed?” Sam sighs, putting down his gun entirely and taking tentative steps towards Gabriel. He knows that this is still a broken being, that it’s the reason he left, most likely. Because he’s broken and he isn’t ready for another damned prize fight.  
“Ooh, is that together, or-? Cause damn, about time!” Gabriel laughs.  
Dean just shoots him a harsh look and walks away. Obviously, his brother is still bitter that Gabriel left, Sam notes. Not really a surprise- he can see where Dean’s coming from, but he’s just... not. Pissed off, that is. He’s understood and forgiven it a hundred times over in his head.  
“Soooo, Sammy. Alone together again. But I’m a bit more perked up this time round, huh?”   
Sam laughs.  
“Maybe on the outside, but you’re still hurt, Gabriel.”  
“And you’d know that because?”  
“Because I’ve been tortured in hell too. And because you ran.”  
“Fair enough. Fuck,” Gabriel mutters under his breath.   
“It’s okay.”  
Sam steers Gabriel to the room he had been in before he left, closing the door behind him.  
They sit down on the bed together and for a while, both are quiet. Then, Gabriel reaches over and takes Sam’s hand. When Sam’s looks over, he’s crying quietly.  
“There never were any porn stars, you know. Or hookers, for that matter. What really happened was, I...” Gabriel begins to admit, before cutting himself off with his own tears.  
“You can tell me. It’s okay. Take your time,” Sam says, squeezing Gabriel’s hand and remembering that Gabriel had trusted him before, and however he wants to go about trusting Sam again, well, that’s okay.   
“I... I did trick Lucifer. But I was too cocky. I hung around, tried to keep an eye on things in that place, and he came back when I didn’t expect him. He caught me and he- he sold me. To some dumb collector. My own brother, he sold me, and I don’t even know why,” Gabriel cries, drawing his hand back and full-body leaning onto Sam.  
“That’s awful.”  
“And then... I was sold back and forth for years until, until hell got so turbulent that Assmodeus decided he had his chance to gain power and he bought me. And that’s where I stayed until cock Ketch came and ‘saved’ me. And now all you guys want to do is use me, and I couldn’t belong to someone again so I ran!” Gabriel says, except he’s not just saying it, he’s almost screaming into Sam’s shoulder by the end of it.  
“Shh. Shh. Calm down. Look, we don’t want to use you. We want you safe. If you choose to help us or if you don’t, that’s of your own free will, okay?” Sam says, and Gabriel’s incoherent screeches quiet down a little. “And Gabriel, that all sounds terrible. I’m so sorry. I see why you ran. But you came back. Why?”  
“Cause I feel safer when I’m with you, Sam Winchester. You’re a freaking hero and I’m nobody. You’ve been tortured by my brother himself, but made it through. You ran away from your dad too, but you had the balls to come back. You’re the human version of what I should be.”  
“I’m not perfect, Gabriel. You know, I’m pretty damned flawed, too.“ Sam says gently.  
“Psh. I mean, look at you. You’re basically human perfection,” Gabriel says into Sam’s shoulder, and they both laugh quietly. “And you’ve made it through. I never could. You’ve come out a hero.”  
“You were a hero in the apocalypse, Gabriel. You were, okay? And hero? It’s not all that you can be. You can be so many things. You can be a soldier, hero, warrior, yes but also, I don’t know, worker, dreamer, lover, writer, hell, you can run a bakery if you want to!”  
“... Whose lover would I be?” Gabriel asks, and Sam can actually feel the twitch of his lips.  
“Whoever would take you as a lover, I guess,” Sam grins, because maybe Gabriel’s starting to wind down now and relax.  
“Yours?”  
Sam chokes on his own spit.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my take on how it could have gone (obvs with added Sabriel cause they’d never get this close to it) :)


End file.
